January 30th, 2018 - Napa Fire Relief Charity Event

We had more than 150 members and guests attended our tasting event & fundraiser and we raised ¥1,627,000. 100% of proceeds will be donated to the Napa Valley Community Disaster Relief Fund (www.napavalleycf.org/fire-donation-page).

The wildfires which ignited on October 9th, 2018 and was not officially declared extinguished until 23 days later, killed 44 people and burned more than 200,000 acres in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Approximately 9,000 homes and structures were destroyed in the fires. It was the most destructive wildfire in California history. There were 44 wineries reportedly damaged which included our partner wineries: Montgomery Vineyard, Patland Estate Vineyards, Roy Estate, Signorello Estate, VinRoc Wine Caves and White Rock Vineyards. The winery in Santa Rosa, Paradise Ridge, where the first Japanese, Kanaye Nagasawa, built his winery in 1875, was destroyed including his historical exhibition. The total losses from the Northern California wildfires were estimated at $1,045 billion.

Fortunately, most of the vineyards were saved from the fires due to their regular maintenance and the fact that there was some moisture in and around the vineyards. In some cases, the vineyards actually served as a fire break, preventing the spread of the wildfires. Luckily, the 2017 season was warmer and drier than most of the years and about 85% of the grapes had been already harvested. The majority of the remaining grapes were Cabernet Sauvignon which is fortunately the most resistant to the “smoke taint”.

The re-construction from the fire damage will take several years but the first step of cleaning up the debris has begun and we are on our way to recovery.